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Senate Draws Battle Line With NNPCL Boss Kyari Over N12trn Spent On Refineries

Published

2 years ago

November 22, 2023

The Senate on Wednesday vowed to ensure that the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, and other top executive officers of the company are sacked and face prosecution over the N12 trillion allegedly spent on turn-around maintenance (TAM) of the nation’s comatose refineries.

The Red Chamber noted that over N12 trillion has been spent on TAM, saying it has records of over $592 million, €4.8 million and £3.4 million spent between 2010 and 2023 on TAM, and yet the refineries are not working.

The threat was made by the Senate Ad hoc Committee investigating the various TAM projects of Nigerian refineries during an interactive session with NNPCL management and other executives of the oil sector.

Some of the agencies invited, whose chief executive officers failed to turn up but sent representatives instead, and who the committee threatened to sack and jail, include NNPCL, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and their subsidiaries.

The chairman of the ad hoc committee, Senator Isa Jibrin (APC, Kogi East), noted that so much has been heard about the turn-around efforts and so much has been spent on operational materials for refineries that are not working.

He avowed that they want to know the solutions to all the leakages, as there are a lot of them.

He said: “We will ask for refunds and dismissals of all the chief executives involved in the turn-around maintenance. We sent them invitations more than two weeks ago requesting documents and the documents have not been released after two weeks. So, we want the chief executives to be present.

“More worrisome is that between 2010 and 2020, the sum of N4.8 trillion was said to have been spent as operational expenses. How do you incur operational expenses that have to do with the purchase of raw materials and similar expenses on factories that are moribund? How did we come up with operational expenses? We need to know.

“These are issues that Nigerians want to know about; they want solutions to all these leakages. We know they are leakages. Whether you accept it [or not], there are leakages, and they are all forms of compromise within your various establishments.

“We know and we will not hesitate to escalate it to the highest possible level, including the possibility of refund and outright dismissal of some of the heads of some of these agencies and possibly going to jail,” he stressed.

Also speaking, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP, Kebbi South) said the officials who appeared before the committee to represent their bosses should be sent back to tell their chief executives that they must appear in person.

Senator Sumaila Kawu (NNPP, Kano South) said: “We are not in the Senate for personal functions. We are representing the entire legislature. We are in a very serious business. We are independent. We can go to any length to defend our people.”

He said to the representatives who appeared for their chief executives: “We will suspend this interaction until you are ready. We have 100 ways in which we can achieve our legislative work. We just wanted to give you a fair hearing and you must respect the Constitution.”

Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe Central) added that the committee deals with heads or chief executives rather than their representatives.

“We will have to agree on new dates for the submission of the documents, both hard copies and soft copies, and a date for a meeting where the chief executives must appear,” he said.

The agencies were given until Tuesday to submit the documents before the meeting with their chief executives.

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

7 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

Headline

Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

7 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

Headline

Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

7 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP